Rhodium Plating--How Can You Tell?

To my fellow TSD'ers who are Gillette-savvy - I have seen the term "Rhodium Plated" in regard to high-end Gillettes; was this an option from Gillette, or is this after-market plating? If it is a stock feature on Gillettes, is there some coding, or other indicator of the Rhodium, or do you just have to know what you are looking at? I picked up a grunge-encrusted Fat Boy E-1 at a junk shop in Utah over the New Years holiday; brought it home and cleaned it up; sparkles like a new penny--just wondering if it may be Rhodium, or just nickel plating. I could post photos, but my photo skills may do it no justice, or give any clear indicator of what the viewer might be looking at. Anyone help me on this? Thanx! NCV

Wow, I bought my fatboy and had it rhodium plated. I also see rhodium plated razors on ebay and just assumed that they were an aftermarket upgrade by the owner. It will be interesting to find out the whole story.

The "FatBoy" is nickle unless it's been replated in rhodium,if it's a gold "FatBoy" I believe it was called an Executive. I want to say Gillette did rhodium plate the handle and nickle plate the head on the "President" TTO from the factory, but I could be mistaken. The "President" was what I call one of the "Aristocrat" TTO series (Aristocrat(gold),Diplomat(gold),President(rhodium/nickle)). What your seeing NCV is the reason Gillettes have held up over the years and why they are still VERY desirable razors!! A jewler may be able to tell you if its been rhodium plated are not....

Many razors with a nice chrome shine are rhodium plated. Some came from the factory with a plating and some are aftermarket done. Usually an aftermarket rhodium plate with look brand new, if it's done correct. I will post a pic of two razors I Rhodium plated and Nickel plated. I recently rhodium plated a Gillette Tech heavy that turned out real nice & nickel plated a Gillette 'the new' that I don't have pics of yet. I have been using this one for about a month after rhodium plating. Just like on jewelry it will last a while, but sooner of later then original metal will start to show. On rings sometimes it is a year or more, so I expect that a razor should stay shiny for much longer since it does not get the wear and tear a ring would.

So that's who does the plating, jewelers? I don't know enough about the topic to discuss with the jeweler, so do I want to go the rhodium route, or the nickel? I'm looking for durability and protection first and appearance second, although appearance is important, too. Got a ballpark figure for what this would cost?

I personally like the nickel look much better. It looks like a sweet rose gold piece of jewelry. Rhodium looks amazing too, especially when professionally done. I have seem some razors on ebay that I could tell were done with some of those 'do it yourself' rhodium kits. Rhodium is much more expensive when we do it for someone because our plating bath is made for gold. When we rhodium plate a ring it usually costs around $60-75 Getting a razor nickel plated after polishing and then having it dipped, repolished, is not too expensive. Rhodium, on the other hand, can be much more expensive...if done at a jewelry store. I'm sure there are some other options on places that can do it that may be cheaper. We have never done this for any customer, this was just something I did for myself. I am only speaking from personal experience. I do not know what other places charge.

*just to be clear* Our store does not offer this service, this was just my own projects.

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Thanks for your help. There are a couple of my older blades I'd really like to pretty up. Is there any benefit to having an old steel straight done in either. Just occurred to me, now that I think of it I can see where it may not be ideal for a straight. Any thoughts?

The best example if the Gillette President. The head and the tapered neck are plated in Nickel and handle below is Rhodium. With the two metals so close together you can't mistake them. Rhodium looks like brilliant white Silver.

Thanks for your help. There are a couple of my older blades I'd really like to pretty up. Is there any benefit to having an old steel straight done in either. Just occurred to me, now that I think of it I can see where it may not be ideal for a straight. Any thoughts?

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I think that due to the fact that straights are constantly being sharpend then it would soon wear off, unless you were doing it just for show.

Fatboys are all nickel plated as stated above or gold plated in case of the Fatboy Executive. Many models of the British made Gillette Aristocrats such as the #15, #16, #21, #22 and #66 are rhodium plated. It is usually easy to visually differentiate between a nickel and a rhodium plated razor as the rhodium plated ones give off a unique shine. Once you've seen a rhodium plated Aristocrat razor in person, it will be easy to spot the difference.

To my fellow TSD'ers who are Gillette-savvy - I have seen the term "Rhodium Plated" in regard to high-end Gillettes; was this an option from Gillette, or is this after-market plating? If it is a stock feature on Gillettes, is there some coding, or other indicator of the Rhodium, or do you just have to know what you are looking at? I picked up a grunge-encrusted Fat Boy E-1 at a junk shop in Utah over the New Years holiday; brought it home and cleaned it up; sparkles like a new penny--just wondering if it may be Rhodium, or just nickel plating. I could post photos, but my photo skills may do it no justice, or give any clear indicator of what the viewer might be looking at. Anyone help me on this? Thanx! NCV

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Hello,
Gillette did release some of their high end razors with Rhodium plating. I kno they released an Excutive model and a President model in Rhodium